No. 26. 



Proceedings on the Dedication 
of the Tablet erected by the 
New York Society of the Order 
of the Founders and Patriots of 
America, on the site of Fort 
Amsterdam, at the United 
States Custom House, New 
York City. 

September 29th, 1909. 




"Steadfast for God and Country" 



■i 

-0^5 



The New York Society 

of the 

Order of the Founders and Patriots 

of 

America 



Officers— 1909-10 

Geo. Clinton Batcheller, LL. D., Governor Theodore Oilman, Treasurer 
Col. Henry W. Sackett, Deputy Governor John C. Coleman, State Attorney 
Rev. Edward Payson JoHNSON,Z).Z?.,C//«//az« Clarence Ettienne Leonard, i^^^zV/'r^r 
Charles Edey Fay, Secretary Louis Annin Ames, Genealogist 

William Edward Fitch, M.D., Historian 

Councillors— 1907-10 

Gen. Stewart Lyndon Woodford Theodore Fitch 

Col. George E. Dewey 

1908-11 
Col. Ralph Earl Prime Edgar Abel Turrell 

Charles W. B. Wilkinsof 

1909-12 

Maj.-Gen. Frederick D. Grant, U. S. A. Edward Hagaman Hall, L. H. D. 
Richard Hubbard Roberts 

Committee on Tablet 

Theodore Fitch, Chairman 
Maj.-Gen. Frederick D. Grant, U. S. A. Col. Ralph E. Prime 

Gen. Stewart L. Woodford Edward Hagaman Hall, L. H. D. 

George Clinton Batcheller, LL.D., Ex-Officio 

Sub-Committee on Dedication of Tablet 

William Edward Fitch, M.D., Chairman 
Clarence Ettienne Leonard Charles W. B. Wilkinson 



Gift 

"'■" .Society 
JUN 23 1911 






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Tablet on site of Fort Amsterdam, in United States Custom He 




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The New York Society of the Order of the Founders and 
Patriots of America deemed it desirable to commemorate certain 
important events in the history of our country by erecting a 
tablet upon the historic site of Fort Amsterdam, whereon the 
United States Custom House now stands. 

The consent of the United States through its Treasury De- 
partment, which has custody of the building, was obtained, and 
the tablet was placed on the central westerly panel of the main 
stairway leading into the building. 

The Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission ratified the 
action of the Society and made the dedication of the tablet 
ofificially a part of its celebration in 1909. 

The tablet is of bronze, 2^ feet by 4^ feet in size, made by 
J. & R. Lamb. 

Upon the upper part of the tablet is an outline representing 
the plan of Fort George, the successor of Fort Amsterdam, en- 
closing the following inscription in small letters: 

This outline of the Fort is made on a scale of 12.5 feet to the 
inch from "A Plan of Fort George in the Cit)^ of New York 
made at the request of the Honourable John Cruger, Esquire 
and the rest of the committee appointed to fix on a suitable place 
for building a Government House Made this 12th April 1774 
by Gerard Bancker" 

In the southwest bastion is the representation of the seal of 
the Society, and in the southeast bastion the representation of a 
magnetic compass. Below is the following inscription : 

ON THIS SITE 
FORT AMSTERDAM WAS ERECTED 1626 

AND ITS SUCCESSOR 
FORT GEORGE WAS DEMOLISHED 1790 



TO COMMEMORATE THE EXPLORATION OF 

THE HUDSON RIVER 

BY HENRY HUDSON IN SEPTEMBER 1609 

THE FOUNDING OF NEW AMSTERDAM MAY 4 1626 

AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783 

THIS TABLET IS PLACED BY 

THE NEW YORK SOCIETY OF THE ORDER OF THE 

FOUNDERS AND PATRIOTS OF AMERICA 

SEPTEMBER 1909 



An historical sketch of Fort Amsterdam by Edward Haga- 
man Hall, L. H.D., past Governor of our Society, was printed in 
the programme of the celebration issued by the Hudson-Fulton 
Celebration Commission, and is reprinted herein. In such pro- 
gramme and also in the circular published by the Society was 
printed the following : 

"ORDER OF EXERCISES 

on dedication of the Society's tablet on the site of Fort Amster- 
dam at the United States Custom House, on Wednesday,. 
September 29th, 1909, ^t eleven o'clock. 

George Clinton Batcheller, L.L.D., Governor of the 
Society, will preside and direct the unveiling of the tablet. 

Address by Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, former Governor Gen- 
eraPof the Order, on " The Exploration of the Hudson River 
by Henry Hudson in September, 1609." 

Address by Edward Hagaman Hall, L.H.D., former Governor 
of the Society, on the " Founding of New Amsterdam,. 
May 4, 1626." 

Address by Theodore Fitch, former Governor of the Society, 
on " The Establishment of American Independence, 1775- 
1783." 

Address by Maj-Gen. Frederick Dent Grant, U. S. A., former 
Governor General of the Order and Governor of the Society, 
on presentation of the tablet to the United States. 

Address by Hon. William Loer, Jr., Collector of the Port of 
New York, on accepting the custody of the tablet in behalf 
of the United States authorities. 

Prayer by Rev. Edward Payson Johnson, D.D., Chaplain of 

the Society. 

There will be patriotic music between the addresses. 

Immediately after the presentation a salute of thirteen guns 
will be fired from Fort Jay, on Governor's Island. 

American Continentals, Col. Henry D. Tyler, Command- 
ant, and the Minute Men undercommand of Major E. J. Paull, 
in Continental uniform, will participate in the exercises as a 
Guard of Honor." 



Gen. Woodford, the President of the Hudson-Fulton Celebra- 
tion Commission, in the multiplicity of duties devolving upon him 
during the celebration, was to his and our regret unable to meet 
this appointment, and Edward Hagaman Hall, L.H.D. Assistant- 
Secretary of the Commission and past Governor of the Society, 
consented to make the address upon the subject assigned to 
Gen. Woodford. 

Major- General Frederick Dent Grant, U. S. A., received 
orders from the War Department a few hours before the dedi- 
cation to report at Washington on that day, which prevented 
him from being present, and his place was filled by Col. Ralph 
E. Prime, D.C.L., L. L. D., past Governor of the Society and 
past Governor General of the Order, who presented the tablet 
to the United States. 

About fifty Iroquois Indians, guests of the Commission, were 
present at the dedication. Dressed in their native costume, they 
were drawn up in a hollow square in front of the entrance to 
the Custom House, presenting a picturesque foreground. 

It was a vivid reminder of the Colonial and Revolutionary 
periods in which their ancestors were participants. During the 
exercises they gave some interesting symbolic dances and tribal 
songs, and William Crow, one of their number, eighty-nine years 
of age, delivered a spirited speech in his native language. 

Before and between the addresses the band played patriotic 
airs. 

Many associates of our Order were present, and there was a 
large assemblage of guests and the public at the exercises. 

The following is a report of the proceedings at the dedi- 
cation of the tablet: 

Governor George Clinton Batcheller, LL.D. : 

Associates, Ladies and Gentlemen : The longer I live, the 

more I am convinced, that history is simply and only and always 

his-story — the story of a man, a man who knew how to do things 

— and did them. 

In passing through this city, within the last few days, I 

stood by Grant's Tomb on the Hudson, so that Hudson and 

Grant are now inseparable in my thought. 

I saw the thirteen trees that Alexander Hamilton planted, 

and his tomb in Trinity Churchyard. I looked on statue after 

statue, of Washington and Lafayette, of Seward and Lincoln, of 



Franklin and Ericson, and many others that grace our parks and 
open places. In front of St. Paul's I saw the marble slab that 
tells the story of Montgomery, and, just across the way, a tablet 
that records the birth of the first white child on this island. 
Turning the dusty pages of the yesterdays of life, we read that 
a few old guns gave the name of " Battery," to the lower end of 
Broadway, Around the corner, still called .Bowling Green, 
the lusty Dutchman played tenpins. Golf and tennis, baseball 
and cricket, are our recreations today. A fence running from 
old Trinity to the East River, was built to keep the negroes in, 
and the Indians out, and we call it Wall Street to this day. 

The population of our entire country, in those olden times, 
did not equal one-fourth the number of people in New York 
State today — and who will dare to prophesy the future of our 
country one hundred years from now? This building, massive 
and magnificent as it is, may not be here, but this tablet will 
remain to tell the wholesome and heroic story of Henry Hud- 
son's life. We are the heirs of all the ages ; and all the ages, yet 
unborn, are to be our heirs. God buries his workmen, but the 
work goes on. 

Three hundred years ago, and we are living in the days of 
Good Queen Bess, of Shakespeare, Rare Ben Jonson, Milton and 
Bacon. 

Another hundred years, and the century finds us shaking 
hands with old Ben Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, 
and George Washington. 

The hundred years just come and gone, have been eventful 
in that we have become a great nation, and the century is full of 
Tennyson and Carlyle, of Emerson and Cooper, of Macaulay 
and Motley, of Dickens and Thackeray and Longfellow. 

" Until the dead alone seem living. 
And the living alone seem dead." 

I grow reminiscent, and reluctantly relinquish memory, but 
the programme defines my position and limits my time. 

Before I proceed further t would say that I am sure you 
will agree with me in my regrets that owing to the great burden 
and various functions that press so heavily upon General Stew- 
art L. Woodford, President of The Hudson-Fulton Celebration 
Commission, it will be impossible for him to be with us and take 
part in the exercises this morning. General Woodford desires 
that I express for him his regrets. 



I am highly honored and proud of the duty I have to per- 
form in presenting to you Dr. Edward Hagaman Hall, formerly 
Governor of this Society, my friend and predecessor, who will 
now address to you a few remarks on the exploration of the 
Hudson River by Henry Hudson, in September, 1609, and the 
founding of New Amsterdam, May 4th, 1626. (Applause.) 

Dr. Edward Hagaman Hall : 

Mr. Governor, Associates, Ladies and Gentlemen : We 
meet here todaj'' to commemorate, by this enduring bronze, 
three important events in the history of our City, State and Na- 
tion ; the first exploration of our queenly river by Henry Hud- 
son, the founding of our imperial city by the Dutch, and the 
achievement of our national independence. Of the first two 
events it is my pleasurable duty briefly to speak. 

In these days of conflicting claims by rival explorers it may 
not be amiss, on this occasion, to say a word concerning Hud- 
son's title to fame as the first European explorer of the river 
which bears his name. A few days ago ground was broken in 
Battery Park for a monument to Verrazzano, who eniered our 
harbor in 1524. We should feel indebted to our French and 
Italian citizens for their enterprise in erecting that monument, 
for it serves to emphasize the wide difference between the 
achievement of the Italian navigator who sailed under French 
auspices, and that of the English navigator who sailed under the 
Dutch. Verrazzano entered New York harbor but did not ex- 
plore the river, and no beneficial results ensued from his brief 
stay. Henry Hudson explored the river to the head of naviga- 
tion, made its resources known to the world, opened it up to 
civilization, and made his knowledge useful to mankind. 

Among the many proofs that Hudson was the first European 
thoroughly to explore the river, there is one convincing fact 
which may be stated in a few words. The declared object of 
the great navigator's voyage of 1609 was to find a passage to the 
Orient by the northeast or the northwest. When baffled by the 
Arctic ice, he deliberately turned his prow westward to seek a 
passage to the western sea which was believed to exist in the 
latitude of 40 degrees, and he entered our river in the firm belief, 
based on guesswork maps of the period and the hearsay advice 
of Captain John Smith, that it led to the western sea. 

13 



Now, through his association with the English Muscovy 
Company, and with that group of famous geographers who 
made Amsterdam at that time the center of geographical 
knowledge, Hudson was conversant with all the discoveries of 
English and Continental navigators prior to that time. If, there- 
fore, any European had previously explored the river, Hudson 
would have known that it did not lead to the Orient, and he 
never would have entered it. The very fact that Hudson ex- 
plored our river under the circumstances, is indubitable proof 
of the priority of his exploration, to which might be added 
other evidences too numerous to mention on this occasion. 

We honor Hudson's memory today for two reasons : First, 
he has given us a noble example of courage of conviction which 
is the basis of all right living. He had not only physical cour- 
age to brave great and unknown dangers, but he had also the 
moral courage to maintain his convictions, even in the face of 
death. No soldier upon the battlefield, no martyr at the stake, 
has ever been glorified by a more heroic end than that of the 
great navigator, who, because he would not yield his beliefs 
and convictions to a mutinous crew, was set adrift in the dreary 
waste of Hudson's Bay, to perish by the slow tortures of freez- 
ing or starvation. Our first debt to Hudson, then, is for his ex- 
ample. 

Our second debt is a material one. He is a benefactor of 
his race who makes the lives of his fellowmen more worth living. 
Hudson opened up to civilization a land of which he said : " It 
is as pleasant a land as one need tread upon. The land is the 
finest for cultivation that 1 ever in my lite set foot upon." 
This land has since become a land of peaceful industry and 
happy homes. A great and prosperous people now inhabit it, 
and the world is happier and better for the civilization that has 
grown up within these once savage borders. Truly, Henry 
Hudson was a benefactor. Truly we owe his memory a great 
debt of gratitude. 

Our tablet commemorates next the founding of New Am- 
sterdam. When Rome and Athens were hoary with age, when 
London Tower was moss-grown and lichen-covered, and when 
the origins of the capitals of the Orient were lost in the myths 
of mythology, New York was yet unborn ; and the islands 
which gem our waters were yet in their native beauty as in the 
day of Creation. The industrious beaver built his dam in the 



■neighboring brook now covered by the dry pavements of Bea- 
ver Street. The native wild men drew up their canoes on the 
neighboring shores. Then came the magic working voyage of 
Hudson ; and close after him the industrious but transient 
traders, and then, less than 300 years ago, came that little band 
of Dutch pioneers who on this spot erected the first permanent 
structure on Manhattan Island — Fort Amsterdam. Within the 
four walls of that little fortress, the Metropolis of the West was 
born. We stand therefore at the cradle of our beloved city. 
We stand at a sacred place. The little princess, born here of 
the free blood of the Dutch republic has grown to be the Queen 
of the West. She sits on her throne. She opens her shining 
gates to the rising sun. The argosies of the world bear their 
treasures to her feet, the people of all nations gather within the 
borders of her benignant hospitality. Her domain has become 
"' the crowning city," whose merchants are princes, whose traf- 
fickers are the honorable of the earth. 

O city of our home, as we stand here at the place of thy 
nativity, in this great festival of our happiness, and reverently 
dedicate this tablet in memory of thy birth, we dedicate our- 
selves to thee in loving and loyal devotion. 

■" Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee ; 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
Are all with thee — are all with thee," 
(Prolonged Applause.) 

Governor Batcheller: 

It gives me great pleasure to have the honor to introduce 
to you Theodore Fitch, former Governor of this Society, who 
will address you on the subject of "The Establishment of Amer- 
ican Independence, 1775-1783-" (Applause.) 

Theodore Fitch : 

Mr. Governor, Associates, Ladies and Gentlemen : On the 
9th of July, 1776, New York received news that Congress had 
adopted the Declaration of Independence by the vote of twelve 
of the Colonies, New York not voting as her delegates had not 
received instructions. On the evening of the same day by order 
■of Washington, it was read before every brigade of his army then 
stationed in New York. The news was received with enthusi- 
asm, and the leaden statue of George III, which stood directly 
in front of this spot only a few feet distant, was pulled down. 

'5 



In a general order issued the next day Washington con- 
demned the act as riotous, but nevertheless the statue was down, 
and some of the fragments were afterwards melted into bullets 
for the patriots to use against the British. 

The Convention of New Yoik in session at White Plains on 
the lotli of July, 1776, ratified the Declaration of Independence 
and instructed their delegates in Congress to vote for it. The 
Thirteen Colonies were now a unit in the struggle for inde- 
pendence. 

In the summer of 1776 Fort George witnessed a sad specta 
cle. It looked on Staten Island on which Gen. Howe's army of 
25,000 men was encamped. It saw Lord Howe's powerful fleet 
in the harbor. It saw 20,000 British troops carried across the 
Bay and landed at Gravesend on their march to capture Wash- 
ington's army. It looked on Brooklyn Heights where Washing- 
ton was entrenched with 8,000 men, while Stirling and Sullivan 
with 5,000 raw recruits a little further down awaited the attack 
of Howe's veterans. 

It was the 27th of August, 1776. Howe had routed Stirling 
and Sullivan after desperate fighting. The disastrous battle of 
Long Island had been fought. 

Howe moved up his army to besiege Washington at Brook- 
lyn Heights, confident, with his superiority of forces and com- 
mand of the water, that Washington with his army, then of 
10, coo men, there entrenched, could not escape. 

On the night of the 29th by a most masterly retreat in the 
darkness and fog, without alarming the enemy, Washington 
brought his entire army safely across the river, and foiled 
Howe's plan to capture his army, which, if successful, would 
doubtless have ended the war then and there. 

Fort George, which was garrisoned by British troops from 
the 15th day of September, 1776, when Gen. Howe took posses- 
sion of New York City, until the 25th day of November, 1783, 
witnessed other momentous scenes. 

On the day it witnessed the evacuation of British troops 
from the City of New York and the end of British dominion 
over the Thirteen Colonies. 

Before leaving, the British soldiers nailed their colors to the 
staff in the fort, knocked off the cleats and greased the pole to 
prevent the unfurling of the American flag. But the attempt 
was futile. John Van Arsdale nailed on the cleats, sanded the 

16 



greased pole, ascended the flag-staff, tore down the British 
colors and raised the Stars and Stripes which floated from the 
Fort before the British fleet had left the lower bay. 

The American army took possession; and, from Fort 
George, Washington reviewed his troops on the same day. 

Only a short distance from the fort at Fraunces' Tavern on 
the 4th of December, 1783, Washington delivered his farewell 
to his officers, walked to Whitehall and took a barge to Paulus 
Hook, on his way to Annapolis to surrender his commission to 
the Continental Congress. 

The brief period assigned for my remarks prevents any 
extended history of the American Revolution. 

From the battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, 
when untrained minute-men defeated British veterans and drove 
them in panic to the shelter of their entrenchments, to the sur- 
render of Cornwallis at Yorktown, on the 191 h of October, 1781, 
the story of American valor is written in living letters. 

What memories of heroic conflict are associated with the 
names Bunker Hill, Fort Washington, Trenton, Princeton, 
Ticonderoga, Bennington, Oriskany, Brandywine, Bemis 
Heights, Monmouth, Stony Point, King's Mountain, Cowpens, 
Guilford, Eutaw Springs? What recollections of privations are 
evoked by the mention of Valley Forge, and of suffering and 
martyrdom by the name of the prison ship "Jersey" anchored 
in the Wallabout just across the river, and the Provost Prison 
in the City Hall Park under the jailor Cunningham ? 

Among the generals who contributed much to the establish- 
ment of American independence, and whose names are on 
"Fame's eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed," I will mention 
merely Greene, Lafayette, Steuben, Stirling, Sullivan, Schuyler, 
Montgomery, Morgan, Putnam, Herkimer, Wayne, Marion, 
Sumter, Kosciosko and the first admiral of our navy, the heroic 
John Paul Jones. 

We honor the private soldiers who fought the battles of the 
Revolution, actuated by the purest patriotism. They were 
without adequate pay, poorly fed, insufficiently clothed and 
equipped, but they were patriots who fought for liberty and 
■country. 

But the man of all others who was instrumental in establish- 
ing American independence was Washington. 

17 



His patriotism was unsullied. His military ability and 
generalship was of the highest order. He was superior to the 
petty jealousies and intrigues of Lee, Gates, Mifflin, Wilkinson 
and Conway. He patiently obeyed the orders of an inefficient 
and vacillating Congress and finally prevailed upon it to adopt 
a right policy. He quieted the murmurs of an ill-fed and poorly 
equipped army, healed the dissensions and bickerings of a 
militia which had all the jealousies and independence of 
restraint which characterized the sections from which they came,^ 
prevailed on them to renew their short terms of enlistment, sus- 
tained their courage in defeat, and welded untrained militiamen 
into an army of seasoned veterans. With an inferior force, he 
was always confronted with the problem how to outwit, baffle 
and capture a superior army. 

He succeeded in defeating the various plans of campaign of 
the enemy, such as that for the capture of his army before his 
retreat from Long Island to White Plains, across New Jersey 
and to the entrenchments at Morristown, also the plans to 
separate New England from New York and the other Colonies,, 
and the possession of the Hudson and the Mohawk Valleys, and 
the capture and separation of the Southern Colonies. Espe- 
cially do we honor him for the skillful plan arranged with 
Rochambeau, and the wonderful strategy with which he com- 
pletely deceived Clinton and left him unsuspecting at New 
York until too late, while he swiftly marched his army from 
Westchester County four hundred miles to join the French fleet 
and army awaiting him at Yorktovvn and capture Cornwallis 
and his army of eight thousand men and end the war. 

De Grasse, Rochambeau and Lafayette did their part well, 
and Cornwallis, unable to defend himself longer, sent his flag of 
truce to propose capitulation on the 17th of October, 1781, 
exactly four years to a day from the surrender of Burgoyne at 
Saratoga, which is named by Creasy among the fifteen decisive 
battles of the world. The surrender of Cornwallis was on the 
19th of October, 1781, and there was practically no more fighting 
between the regular forces. 

When the patriots fired their muskets at Lexington it was 
not for separation from England, although it was armed 
rebellion. Very few then thought of anything but the redress 
of grievances, and to remedy the abuses to which the Colonies 
had been subjected by George III. Their efforts were to establish 

18 



a policy of toleration and proper protection of their interests^ 
and recognition of their rights as English subjects. No taxation 
without representation was the chief demand. But events^ 
moved rapidly, and the people soon became convinced that 
independence was necessary to preserve their self government,, 
and the Delaration of Independence followed. Thenceforward 
the war was fought for independence. Rebellion had become 
revolution, and the revolution was justified by success. After 
independence had been won, the Thirteen Colonies under the 
Articles of Confederation were a league of independent states 
bound together with a rope of sand, without national power or 
authority, and it was not until the adoption of the Constitution 
which became operative in 1789, that the United States became 
in reality a nation strong and powerful as well as inde- 
pendent. 

Today we welcome all the nations represented at the Hud- 
son-Fulton Celebration. Among them we greet the Netherlands 
which sent the "Half Moon" to these waters three hundred 
years ago, and which established on Manhattan Island civil and 
religious liberty and toleration. 

We welcome Germany which sent to aid us in the Revolu- 
tion that trained soldier Baron von Steuben, who rendered such 
efficient service in drilling our raw recruits and making our 
army fit to cope with the veterans opposed to it. 

We welcome France, our ally in the Revolution, whose fleet 
and army co-operating at Yorktown made the surrender of 
Cornwallis a necessity, and whose battleships fitly named 
Justice, Truth and Liberty, have now come to do us honor. 

But especially, now that the resentment and bitterness of 
the Revolutionary struggle have faded away, do we welome 
England to our celebration, and her fleet again in our harbor 
with the Inflexible commanded by Admiral Seymour leading 
her powerful battleships, and coming not as our foe but our 
friend and honored guest. 

As Founders and Patriots most of our Order descend from 
the original English colonists, and we are proud of English 
institutions and English laws, of her language and literature, 
which are our common heritage. All of the glorious history ol 
England before her colonists settled in this country is ours, and 
as Americans of English descent we glory in all of it that an. 
Englishman can glory in. 



The standards of our Order are two — one is the American 
Flag, the other is the Cross of St. George, the red cross on the 
white ground surmounted, however, by thirteen blue stars, and 
both command our admiration and regard. We wear with 
pride as the insignia of our Order the button which represents 
the Cross of St. George. 

England's glory, with all that it represents, is ours, and as 
American citizens we rejoice that we are kinsmen whose sym- 
pathies and aspirations are in accord, and that the destinies of 
the United States and of England appear now to be linked to- 
gether to enhance the welfare and happiness of millions of the 
English-speaking people, and for the benefit of the entire Anglo- 
Saxon race, and the advance of civilization. (Applause.) 

Governor Batcheller : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : We have here a unique assemblage 
of aborigines, natives of this State. Dr. Hall will tell us what 
their ceremony consists of. He is well versed in the history of 
the Indians. 

Dr. Edward Hagaman Hall : 

Mr. Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen : The Indians who 
are here with us are real Indians ; they are not white people 
painted up for this occasion. They represent the real "first 
families of New York." They are the descendants of the Iro- 
quois Indians, or the Five Nations, sometimes called the Six Na- 
tions when there were six nations. They are now going to give 
you one of their ceremonial songs and one of their ceremonial 
dances ; and I wish to say to you, so you may appreciate what 
they are doing, that this is not a show. 

They have been brought here by Mr. Moore for the Hudson- 
Fulton Celebration Commission, with the idea that we are cele- 
brating a great ceremony in honor of the birth of this city. 
They have therefore come here,not as a side-show,but in a religious 
spirit to a great and wholesome celebration. They have been 
■brought here to live part of their lives over again. Their ances- 
tors were the controllers of the Indians who lived on these 
islands. Their ancestors gathered here before the Fort and were 
in the Fort to make treaties. Therefore, for 300 years their de- 
scendants have been on this spot. As I have said, they are here, 
not as an exhibition or as a show, but to repeat some of their 
.ceremonial which has been handed down to them. 



They are going to give a song called " The Prairie Song " 
and a ceremonial dance called the " Feather Dance." 

(Ceremonies by the Indians.) 

Dr. Hall : 

That dance has never before been given outside the reser- 
vation on which those Indians live. 

The oldest Indian here is William Crow, who is 89 years 
old, whom I have the honor now of introducing to you. (Ap- 
plause.) 

William Crow spoke in his native language clearly and em- 
phatically for about five minutes, a small portion of his address 
being translated into English as follows : 

Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad to be here with you on 
this occasion. I am glad to see so many people here to see us, 
this small band of Indians left here to be in this celebration. 
We leave it all to the Great Spirit, to our Great Father, that we 
should live happily henceforth together. That is all we have to 
say; and I thank the gathering for your kind attention. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Governor Batcheller, after directing the unveiling of the tab- 
let, said : 

Late yesterday afternoon I received a despatch from Major- 
General Frederick D. Grant, of the United States Army, that he 
has been called unexpectedly to Washington, D. C, and ex- 
pressing his regret that he could not be present to present this 
tablet to the United States. But I am happy to say we have 
with us this morning a veteran, the founder of this Order, a man 
who is always ready at a moment's call, our Past-Governor and 
Past-Governor-General. I take pleasure in introducing to you 
Col. Ralph Earl Prime. 

Col. Ralph Earl Prime, D.C.L., LL.D. : 

Mr. Governor, Associates, Ladies and Gentlemen : We are 
met here today to unveil a tablet which shall last when we, like 
all our ancestors, have passed away. It shall tell to future gen- 
erations and the children that shall succeed us in our places, the 
story of these events referred to today. 

It has occurred to me that it is exceedingly fit that this part 
of the function should be at the hands of the Society which we 



represent, a Society which, alone of all the American patriotic 
societies, takes up all of these events which relate to the history 
of our city and our country; and all of our associates claim their 
eligibility through descent from men who have participated in 
all of it. 

In the midst of these festivities, it has seemed to me fit also 
that we should not forget the Providence that has run through 
all of the events which are celebrated here today, and which 
are memorialized in this tablet. They do not go back any 
of them to the beginning of America. Columbus far earlier 
in his exploration and discovery, never outstretched to the set- 
tlement of the City of New York, and the discovery of the Hud- 
son River, yet there marched along our shores a Greater Senti- 
nel than ever guarded camp, for the Almighty kept off the dis- 
coverer from these shores until He had prepared a people for it, 
whose descendants have since garrisoned it and made it what it 
is ; until the Puritans of England, the Huguenots of France, the 
Walloons of Flanders and the Dutch of Holland, had been edu- 
cated in the furnace of the adversity which came upon them, to 
make hardy men and women who should found this land for us, 
their descendants. We have gathered, I say to unveil this tab- 
let. And now, Mr. Governor, as representing the New York 
Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, 
and in your name, we commit to the keeping of the Government 
of our great country, this bronze tablet which shall endure when 
we have passed away. (Applause.) 

The United States fired a salute of thirteen guns from 
Fort Jay at Governors Island. 

Governor Batcheller : 

Associates, Ladies and Gentlemen : Our next speaker is a 
gentleman too well known for me to elaborate my remarks. He 
is known throughout our land. You will now hear from New 
York's Collector of the Port, and I have the distinguished honor 
of introducing to you Hon. William Loeb, Jr. (Applause.) 

Hon. William Loeb, Jr. (Collector of the Port of New York): 

Governor Batcheller, Members of the Order of the Founders 
and Patriots of America : — As custodian of this building which 
is so intimately connected with the commerce of the country, 
and for the development of which, Hudson, by his exploration. 



and Fulton, by his invention, so largely contributed, I take pleas- 
ure, on behalf of the Government, in accepting the custody of 
this Tablet, and I congratulate the members of the Order of the 
Founders and Patriots of America upon the important work 
which they are doing for the country and posterity in marking 
historic sites such as this upon which we are assembled, and in 
commemorating events such as these we now are celebrating. 
(Applause.) 

Governor Batcheller: 

The closing exercises will be a benediction pronounced by 
the Rev. Edward Payson Johnson, D.D., the chaplain of this 
Society. 

Rev. Edward Payson Johnson, D.D.: 

God of our fathers! Who brought them safely across vast 
unknown seas, and delivered them from great perils and savage 
foes: — Who established them graciously in this goodly land, 
and in the time of oppression, invasion and treachery raised up 
for them faithful friends, and gave them victory and national 
freedom; — surely Thou hadst a favor, a merciful favor, unto 
our fathers, O Mighty King of Heaven and Earth ! We there- 
fore glorify Thee, and give thanks to Thee, for Thy wondrous 
and long-continued grace to them; and also for their changeless 
faith in Thy guardianship and guidance; for their devout 
reverence for Thy Holy word and Thy Holy Son; and for their 
sincere endeavor always to do the right. We glorify Thee for 
their sturdy virtues and fidelities. We rejoice that we are the 
sons of such sires. 

Yet, O God Most Holy! strengthen us that we may not 
merely glory in our ancestry and our inheritance; but may also 
conscientiously and continually honor them! Deliver us utterly 
from the curse of the intolerant spirit. Preserve us wholly 
from the worldliness that measures man's value by his earthly 
goods, and contends that one's life doth consist in things he 
possesseth. 

Increase in us more and more the self control and calm 
fearlessness, the gracious goodness and gentle humanities which 
we so unaffectedly admire in Thy Dear Son Jesus. Help us, O 
God, to be persistently eager and passionately loyal in following 
after the things which are true, and honest and of good report. 

23 



Strengthen us steadfastly to long and labor for nothing less 
than bringing to all our Land, and all the earth, the Golden 
Age of Heaven, with its brightness and joy, its peace and purity. 
Bless us, O Holy God, in making us each one a blessing to all 
mankind. And to Thy name. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we 
will ascribe the honor, the glory, the praise and the power, world 
without end. Amen. 

Governor Batcheller : 

There will be another ceremonial dance by the Indians 
before we separate. 

(Ceremonial dance by Indians.) 



24 



FORT AMSTERDAM. 
Historical Sketch by Edward Hagaman Hall, L.H.D. 



The site of the United States Custom House at the foot of 
Broadway possesses the unique distinction of being the Cradle 
of the Metropolis. When Peter Minuit, the first Director-Gen- 
eral of New Netherlands arrived in 1626 and planted the first 
permanent colony on Manhattan Island, the first concern of the 
Dutch pioneers was to stake out a fort, under the direction of 
Kryn Frederick, an engineer sent along for this purpose. This 
fort — probably the first permanent structure raised on the island 
— was originally a blockhouse surrounded by palisades. It was 
located within the area bounded by Bowling Green, State, Bridge 
and Whitehall Streets, and was named Fort Amsterdam. 

At that time it stood on the water front, the original water 
line coming down the west side of the Island approximately 
along the line of Greenwich Street, then bending southeastward 
across the corner of Bridge and State Streets, and thence fol- 
lowing the southern and eastern sides of the Island along the 
line of Pearl Street. Battery Park, therefore, is all made land, 
or "gedempte," as the Dutch would say. 

In 1633 Director-General Wouter Van Twiller began a new 
fort on a larger scale. It was about 300 feet long by 250 feet 
wide, required two years to construct, and cost 4,172 guilders. 
It was four-square, with a bastion at each corner. In 1642 an im- 
posing two storied stone church was built within the fort. For 
many years the fort was the seat of government, the harbor of 
refuge and the place of worship, and the history of New Nether- 
land and of Colonial New York could be written very fully from 
the events connected with this site. 

With almost every change of dynasty the fort took a new 
name. When the English captured it in 1664 it was named 
Fort James. When the Dutch recaptured it in 1673 it was 
named Fort William Henry. In 1674, with the English again in 
possession, it was called Fort James again. In 1689, when James 
fled the throne and William and Mary ascended it, the Colonists, 
with delightful adaptability to circumstances and loyalty to the 
reigning monarch, promptly named it Fort William. In 1702, 
when good Queen Anne mounted the throne, the Colonists zeal- 
ously attested their loyalty to her by giving it the name of Fort 

25 



Anne. So it remained until the Queen died in 1714 and George 
I. was proclaimed King, whereupon the fort was promptly re- 
christened Fort George. During the reigns of the three succes- 
sive Georges the name of the fort remained unchanged. 

Meanwhile the fort had been strengthened and reinforced 
by a battery extending in a semi-circle along the water from 
what is now the corner of Greenwich Street and Battery Place 
to about the corner of Whitehall and Water Streets. The full 
complement of the fort and battery was 120 guns. 

For many years the fort was the seat of goverment over a 
wide region. In the days of New Netherland its jurisdiction 
reached from the Connecticut River on the east to the Delaware 
River on the west and south. In the days of Colonial New 
York its jurisdiction, overleaping intermediate New England, ex- 
tended as far as Pemaquid, Maine, where there was a fort main- 
tained from Fort George as a base. 

For over 150 years the fort, under its various names, v/as 
the ceremonial center of the colony. Here the Indians gathered 
in all their barbaric picturesqueness to negotiate treaties with 
the white men. When the governors of New Netherland and 
New York were imported, and not homemade as now, this was 
their formal reception place and residence, and here one cere- 
mony followed another, increasing in stateliness and splendor as 
the colony grew and the ornaments of government increased. 
Hither yearly upon the King's birthday the city officials "in 
their formalities " and the leading citizens repaired to drink the 
King's health amid salvos of artillery; and at other times, when 
the Colonists were less cordially disposed toward the Govern- 
ment, some of the most exciting incidents in the city's history 
were enacted under the frowning walls of the old fort. At last, 
when the British evacuated the city in 1783, Washington re- 
viewed the triumphal American procession from the fort's dilapi- 
dated walls. 

In 1790 the fort was demolished to make room for a Gov- 
ernment House, which was intended for a Presidential Mansion. 
The removal of the National Capital from New York, however, 
relegated the structure to the uses of a Gubernatorial residence; 
and when New York lost the honor of being the State Capital 
the building was used as a custom house. Between that Custom 
House and the present Custom House one or two generations 
of commercial buildings have intervened. 

26 



Publications of the New York Society oJ the Order of the 
Founders and Patriots of America 

1. "The Settlement of New York," by George Rogers Howell, March 

18, 1897. 

2. " The Battle of Lexington," by Hon. John Winslovv, May 13, 1897. 

3. "George Clinton," by Col. R. E. Prime, December 15, 1902. 

4. "Washington, Lincoln and Urant," by Gen. James Grant Wilson, 

April 6, 1903. 

5. "Early New York," by Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt, January 15, 1904. 

6. "Thomas Hooker, The First American Democrat," by Walter Seth 

Logan, February 19, 1904. 

7. " Early Long Island," by Hon. Wm. Winton Goodrich, March 16, 1904. 

8. "Banquet Addresses," May 13, 1904. 

9. "The Philippines and The Filipinos," by Maj. Geo. Frederick D. 

Grant, December 10, 1904. 

10. "Some Social Theories of the Revolution," by Theodore Gilman, 

January 31, 1905. 

11. " Banquet Addresses," May 13, 1905. 

12. "The Story of the Pequot War," by Thos. Egleston, LL.D., Ph. D., 

December 15, 1905. 

13. "Distinctive Traits of a Dutchman," by Col. John W. Vrooman, 

February 23, 1906. 

14. "An Incident of the Alabama Claims Arbitration," by Col. Ralph 

E. Prime, March 23, 1906. 

15. "Banquet Addresses and Memoir of Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt," 

May 14, 1906, 

16. "Constitution, By-Lavrs and Regulations of the Order, and List of 

Members of the General Court, with By-Laws and List of 
Members of the New York Society," November 1, 1906. 
"Some Municipal Problems that Vexed the Founders," by Rev. 
Wm. Reed Eastman, December 14, 1906. 

" A Vanished Race of Aboriginal Founders," by Brig. Gen'l Henry 
Stuart Turrill, U. S. A., February 14, 1907. 

" List of Oflicers and Members of the New York Society," Novem- 
ber 15, 1907. 

" The Hudson Valley in the Revolution," bv Francis Whiting Halsey, 
December 13, 1907. 

"American Territory in Turkey; or. Admiral Farragut's Visit ta 
Constantinople and the Extra-territoriality of Robert Col- 
lege," by Ralph E. Prime, LL.D., D. C. L., February 14, 1908. 

22. " Banquet Addresses," May 13, 1908. 

23. " Some Things the Colony of North Carolina Did and Did First 

in the Founding of English-Speaking America," by William 
Edward Fitch, M. D., December 11, 1908. 

24. "Colonial Legends and Folk Lore," by Hon. John C. Coleman, 

January 20, 1910. 

25. " The Origin, Rise and Downfall of the State of Franklin, Under 

Her First and Only Governor — John Sevier," by William Edward 
Fitch, M. D., March 11, 1910. 

26. Proceedings on the Dedication of the Tablet Erected by the New 

York Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of 
America, on the Site of Fort Amsterdam at the United States 
Custom House, New York City," September 29, 1909. 

27 



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